‘Cease and Desist’ from Attacks on State’s Poor
Contact: Phoebe Rogers, phoebe.rogers@berlinrosen.com, 914-343-9063
*PRESS CONFERENCE, ‘CEASE & DESIST’ LETTER DELIVERY MONDAY 12:30 PM ET*
Moral Monday: Bishop Barber, Repairers of the Breach, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, Impacted People, Faith Leaders, Advocates to Order General Assembly to ‘Cease and Desist’ from Attacks on State’s Poor
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Moral Monday Delegation to Deliver Letter to General Assembly Demanding Extremist Legislators Halt Agenda of Policy Murder
RALEIGH – Bishop Barber, Repairers of the Breach, N.C. Poor People’s Campaign, and a delegation of impacted people and moral leaders representing the moral movement, will hold a press conference on Monday, August 14 at 12:30 pm to deliver the cease-and-desist letter with signatures, to further shed light on the N.C. General Assembly’s hurtful policy agenda and to demand state legislators uplift rather than harm poor and low-wealth people statewide.
The delegation will hand deliver a letter, first issued publicly on Wednesday, August 9, to all legislators on both sides of the aisle, demanding the General Assembly “cease and desist” from its extensive agenda of policy murder and instead focus on passing laws that lift North Carolina’s 4.2 million poor and low wealth people out of poverty. The group has reached out to leadership on both sides of the aisle and requested meetings. The delegation will meet with leadership from one side of the aisle at 11 am on Monday and are working to secure a meeting with the other side of the aisle.
The full letter is available here.
“Extremists in the General Assembly are plotting attacks on voting rights and passing draconian legislation that hurts North Carolina’s LGBTQIA2S+ community, limits women’s right to choose and makes it easier to get guns when they should be addressing the fourth leading cause of death in the nation– poverty,” the letter reads. “They want to focus on culture wars, and in doing so, are abdicating their moral and Constitutional responsibility. They must cease and desist from this agenda of policy violence and create a real democracy, not an impoverished one.”
MORAL MONDAY DETAILS
WHAT: Press conference and delivery of a “cease and desist” letter demanding the NC General Assembly stop all efforts to pass public policies that hurt all North Carolinians, particularly those who are poor and low-wealth
WHO: Bishop William J. Barber II, President of Repairers of the Breach and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign
Repairers of the Breach
North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign
Impacted People, faith leaders, and organizational partners across NC
WHEN: Monday, August 14 at 12:30 pm ET
WHERE: North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, NC. Exact location to be announced Monday.
MORE ON THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL MONDAYS MOVEMENT
Just over 10 years ago, 17 North Carolinians walked into the General Assembly to bear witness to the body’s immoral attacks on the most vulnerable residents of the state. Before long, thousands had joined in and helped forge a new moral vision for North Carolina. The Moral Monday movement went on to be one of the largest direct action campaigns at a state legislature in U.S. history, with over 1,000 people arrested while demanding North Carolina’s leaders stop committing public policy murder.
The diverse, fusion movement brought together North Carolinians of all races, in all parts of the state. It helped pave the way for Medicaid expansion, drove down extremist Gov. Pat McCrory’s poll numbers and prevented attacks on voting rights, including preserving early voting and same-day registration and blocking voter ID requirements, among many other victories. Yet still today, extremist leaders in the state capitol are hard at work scapegoating poor people, LGBTQ people, immigrants, women and people of color in order to concentrate wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands.
“Our moral movement beat the extremists before and we’re going to rise up and challenge them and beat them again,” Bishop Barber said.
Monday’s gathering comes just months after Bishop Barber, faith communities, low-wage workers and advocacy groups were blocked by metal barricades from entering the North Carolina State House to mark the 10th anniversary and recommitment of the Moral Monday movement and to deliver a warning to North Carolina’s newly-minted supermajority that it must use its newfound power to uplift the people of the state.
To note, 40.2 percent of people in North Carolina are poor or low-income. To meet their basic needs, a household with two adults and two children needs to earn over $25/hour. Working at the state minimum wage ($7.25/hour), it takes 106 hours of work per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. 1,869,127 workers make under 15 dollars an hour–37% of the workforce. This includes 1,668,840 adults and 28.2% of Asian and Native workers, 52.5% of Black workers, 59% of Hispanic workers, 29.1% of white workers, 45.2% of working women and 59.6% of working women of color.
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